The 2024 Windsor International Film Festival was a grand 11-day celebration of Canadian film. Felt like I saw a lot more Canadian film in the 2024 version. The titles may not have been as exciting as those last year yet some very strong Canadian films.
The chase for the 2024 WIFF Prize in Canadian Film shifted away from French-speaking Canadian films, going from 7 to 3, comparing to last year. 2 of the films had very different languages in Farsi and Arabic.
We divided our film reviews into English, French (and other), and Documentaries at the bottom of this page. Any other language films fall into the French file, such as Korean in The Mother and the Bear. We even have French-language documentaries. There were 2 documentaries on the WIFF Prize in Canadian Film list in 2024.
Who Do I Belong To wins 2024 WIFF Prize in Canadian Film
Drama Who Do I Belong To? directed by Meryam Joobeur wins the $25,000 WIFF Prize in Canadian Film at @WindsorFilmFest. Producer Annick Blanc accepts the award. #WIFF24 pic.twitter.com/pPpQn2GWFE
— POV Magazine (@POVmagazine) October 27, 2024
Your humble narrator didn't get a chance to see the 2024 WIFF Prize in Canadian film winner. The judges made a bold choice in the 2024 winner in picking 1 of the 2 films that were not visibly Canadian. The 2023 WIFF Prize in Canadian film winner was a clever film that definitely was visibly Canadian. This may be the Canadian film I think about the most, which makes the choice wonderful in my book.
I do hope to get to the 3 films I wasn't able to see at WIFF 2024.
We had high hopes for Do I Know You from Somewhere and Can I Get a Witness. The former was an interesting film experiment while the latter film brought me to tears in a good way. The Players and Tell Me Why Things Are So Beautiful were very pleasant surprises. There may be something to seeing a film at 9 am.
Sharp Corner delivered on what it set out to do. Singing Back the Buffalo will make you care about the animal even if you never thought about the buffalo.
While Shepherds | Bergers was a way better film than Solo (in terms of Best Canadian Film at the Toronto International Film Festival), the story was even less visibly Canadian than Solo. Frustrating to watch Canadian films that don't reflect Canadian society be placed on a higher pedestal as a result.
Canadian film review: Finding Don McKellar
Twitch City is where my love for Canada started
Last year's celebrity sighting was briefly waving to Maxime Giroux and seeing Atom Egoyan off in the distance. This year, I got to meet Lise Roy, a veteran Quebec actor. Roy was in Lucy Grizzli Sophie. I knew I recognized her from films. We agreed that Tom at the Farm was one of them. I remembered later and told her I saw her in Endorphine, a bizarre and good film where Roy, Sophie Nelisse, and Mylène Mackay (who was in 2 films in the 2024 festival) play incarnations of the same character.
I found out on site that Don McKellar was the jury president for the WIFF Prize in Canadian Film. I really wanted to meet him but would go to no great lengths to meet him. In between films on that Saturday, I ran into McKellar in the lobby of the Capitol Theatre in Windsor.
I totally went fan boy into how much I appreciated and enjoyed his work. McKellar told me after a few accolades that I wasn't bluffing. He did tell me to check out his latest work The Sympathizer. I appreciate that about an artist.
Real life, outside this film festival, is a struggle. This was a nice boost that I hope carries me back into reality. It was an absolute honour.
2024 Windsor International Film Festival preview
2024 TIFF wrapup
2023 WIFF Canadian films in review
CanadianCrossing.com film reviews
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
Sugarcane runs next month on the National Geographic channel and will be on Hulu. We didn't get a chance to see the Indigenous documentaries Beyond Extinction and Wilfred Buck. We hope to see them at some point.
We rarely talk about missed opportunities. 299 Queen Street West was the closing night film last year. An unwritten rule is if there is a chance a film may never get out, watch it in the moment. We gambled and lost since Crave never released the film due to music licensing issues. That will be harder to find even than Inconvenient Indian.
The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal is a 4-part series available on Prime Video in Canada and the United States.
The producers of Intercepted pulled the film from the festival over the appearance of Russians at War. We talked about that last week.
We didn't get a chance to see Who By Fire from Philippe Lesage. The film is rather long and other reviewers weren't wild about the film. Maybe at some point down the road.
Local films Thundersnake and Vampire Zombies … from Space! were pretty good for the parts we saw. Unfortunately, due to circumstances, we were unable to finish either film.
photos credit: me
Twitter capture: @POVmagazine
Overview English French Documentaries
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